Elsha of the Infinite - Jeskai Voltron

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MeowZeDung
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

My true Jeskai love is Kykar, Wind's Fury, and I hope to turn my Kykar thread into a primer eventually, but I couldn't NOT build an Elsha deck. I mean. . . just look at her:




So. Much. Majesty.

Anyhow, here's my first pass at a list that wants to make a big ol' monk and then beat face. I put it together and then cross-referenced it against [mention]darrenhabib[/mention]'s excellent list here and made some obvious upgrades to my list that darren had seen and I had not :crazy:


Elsha of the Infinite - Jeskai Voltron

Commander (1)

Approximate Total Cost:

As I mentioned, this is a first draft, so feel free to point out anything bone-headed or obviously dumb with extreme prejudice. At this point some of it is theoretical and on-paper-only (I don't even own Arcane Signet, Twincast, Mizzium Skin, Ancestral Knowledge, Thought Lash, and Burning Prophet yet!) so it is only partially tested.

I'm going lighter on artifacts and heavier on instants/sorceries than darren's build, mostly because I don't own moxes/vault/crypt, but also because I love spellslinging.

I think the most obvious exclusions in this list are some of the better top deck manipulators like Sensei's Divining Top/Counterbalance (budget) and deck thinning from Mana Severance (also budget reasons), which sets Elsha up beautifully. I hope I'm making up for it enough with effects like Faithless Looting, Ignite the Future, Foresee, Mission Briefing, Telling Time, and Jace's Sanctum.

I wasn't sure how much protection to include alongside Whispersilk Cloak, Lightning Greaves, and Swiftfoot Boots, so I leaned towards more rather than less, excluding only Gods Willing of the ones that readily came to my mind because it can be a dead card. The others either get around the "target creature you control" problem with my 2 shroud equipments by either targeting some other creature (Sheltering light), equipment (Apostle's Blessing), not targeting at all (Brave the elements and overloaded Mizzium Skin), or adding some gravy on top so that I'm willing to suffer the potential drawback (Emerge Unscathed). It's also worth noting the protection effects stack in a way that I can give Elsha protection from color A with one spell, and protection from color B with another spell if I'm planning on using Seize the Day or Savage Beating that turn to swing at more than one player.

Since it's rare I'll have more than 1-2 creatures out (going off with Kykar, Wind's Fury or Monastery Mentor excluded), and I will be turning Elsha sideways most of the time, I wanted to include some defensive cards. I settled on Loxodon Warhammer to keep a healthy lifetotal and get some added evasion, and even though vigilance would be nice, I think it's a better option than Haunted Cloak or Sword of Vengeance. Mace of the Valiant could be interesting with more token production. I also thought Mandate of Peace could be good as both emergency Elsha protection and shutting down an opposing lethal strike.

Let me know what you think!
Kykar primer and other active decks (click!)

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